Over the years, I’ve posted several blogs all across the net on now defunct websites. Blog Rewind revisits these old posts, touched up for modern times. This one, originally published April 2010.
I’ve always distrusted pretty-sounding quotations. Too many people think that just because a statement is said concisely, or a famous person said it, or it has a poetic ring, that it’s true. Context doesn’t matter. It’s “set it and forget it” for the mind. More like “just repeat and your thinking’s complete.”
This happens all the time when people quote America’s “Founding Fathers,” but just because the founding fathers said something doesn’t mean the thought was codified into U.S. law. Or worth listening to.
Tangent: Notice there are no “Founding Mothers.” I guess we can only conclude the USA had two daddies. (At least.)
Anyway, one quotation I’ve found to be true as often as not is, “The path to Hell is paved with good intentions.”
Tangent: So Jesus himself is in Hell?
What especially interested me about that quotation was flipping it around. Since it’s often true, that would imply the precise opposite is also often true. But how can the path to heaven be paved with evil intentions? Hold that question, we’ll come back to it.
You may have heard of this horrible news story (link.) Here’s a summary: a man’s son was killed in Iraq. At the funeral, the Westboro Baptist Church showed up with their obnoxious signs, claiming that God was turning away from the USA because our nation tolerates homosexuals, and soldiers can expect to die due to God’s wrath.
This is something the WBC does often. Sick, right? No matter what you think of America’s endless war(s) anyone with a shred of decency can empathize with a grieving parent burying a child and searching for some measure of peace.
So as the story goes, the father sues the Westboro people, and wins. Awesome! But the Westboro jerks appeal the verdict, and then they win. So now, this poor man is required to pay their court costs, but he refuses, which I believe means he could go to jail.
Now here’s a twist that supports the “truth is stranger than fiction.” Professional blowhard Bill O’Reilly offers to pay the court costs. (Link.) That right there should be a warning to the Westboro cult: when Bill O’Reilly makes you look like a douche bag, your douche-baggery is off the charts.
Yet even as I bust on Billo, I have to say I’m not entirely surprised at his kindness. No matter how much I disagree with him or anyone else, I am sure of one thing: most would never sink low enough to turn someone’s funeral into a circus for an agenda unrelated to the deceased or their family. Most would never dream of turning someone’s funeral into a circus, period.
To do so is disrespectful, foul and the lowest of the low. Just as free speech has some common sense limits (the “no shouting ‘fire’ in a crowded theater” clause) funerals should be off limits to demonstration. I say that as a lover and frequent user of the First Amendment. I promise you that small restriction on free speech will not cause the U.S. Constitution to spontaneously combust.
While I wouldn’t know what goes on in the Westboro cult’s theoretically existent minds, and they clearly have no hearts or souls to speculate about, it’s obvious they want to divide. They want people to turn against gays, kick off an orientation-ocide, if you will.
However, Westboro’s attempts at division have the reverse effect because they serve as a common ground. Conservatives, Liberals, Republicans, Democrats, Straight, Gay, Black, White, I’m confident we ALL realize that the Westboro Baptist Church’s habit of disrupting funerals make them the most vile creatures on earth.
So in the most oblique way, the Westboro Baptist Church, by being so hateful, gives me hope. They bring Americans together under one big tent of disgust. Their hate brings us l, shows us that despite our differences we share a common bond, and maybe even paves the way to heaven with evil intentions.
Retro Review: this blog sounds a little naive in retrospect. It turns out there are people even more vile than the Westboro Baptist Church. I’m referring to Alex Jones, and other psychos harassing the parents of children who died in shootings. (Link.) Hopefully such cruelty still unites most of us under disgust.